Ceasar survives challenge, continues as Democratic chairman

Democrats gather for Broward party election (Anthony Man )

December 9, 2012|By Anthony Man, Sun Sentinel

TAMARAC — — Mitch Ceasar survived a strong challenge Sunday to win a fifth term as Broward Democratic chairman — but he'll run the party without his closest ally and with an enemy looking over his shoulder.

The end of Diane Glasser's 24 years as state Democratic committeewoman was the biggest surprise of the quadrennial party elections — and it turned the gathering of more than 600 Democrats into a chaotic scene filled with booing and parliamentary maneuvering.

Glasser, 84, the party's most prominent leader after Ceasar, stunned the room when she declined to run again. But with nominations already closed, she couldn't nominate her choice for the job so she said she would run after all.

She was defeated, 285 votes to 196 votes, by Maggie Davidson, president of the Democratic Women's Club of Northeast Broward.

Glasser's name has come up in recent days in the corruption trial of suspended Tamarac City Commissioner Patricia "Patte" Atkins-Grad. Developers said they gave gifts to Atkins-Grad in exchange for favorable votes and paid $15,000 to Glasser, who was her campaign manager.

Glasser said the trial had nothing do with her decision not to run again, something she said she decided more than a year ago and told no one — including Ceasar.

Ceasar faced a tough challenge to his own bid for a fifth, four-year term from Cynthia Busch, a Democratic activist who was heavily involved in Barack Obama's 2008 and 2012 campaigns.

Ceasar won, 340 to 242. But Busch will be at his side in the party's inner circle. Later in the afternoon, she was elected the party's first vice chairwoman.

All the ins and outs of the Broward Democratic Party elections at SunSentinel.com/BrowardPolitics.